We, like most other successful Network Marketer’s have become students of Personal Development. Without keeping on top of your mindset, conditioning your belief system and realizing that it can be done it is very difficult to be massively successful. In the continuing process of our success we have read many many books. Some have been around for a long time and are staples in every Networkers Library while others are relatively new and should be. We thought we would take a moment and share with you some of our favorite books. Each of these books has had a significant impact on us personally and our business as well.

So here we go with our top 10 reads ( it may be difficult to narrow it down to 10 ). These books are not in any order, just the 10 books we have enjoyed of late:

The evolution of Internet has produced tremendous opportunities to the people across the world and it had impacted the life of human kind in some way or the other. This has made online business the most popular business venture of today. Online business is similar to any other conventional forms of business, except that it is being done through internet. It’s also essential to make your Business on this kind of industry. We have come up of a list that can help you get started on your Business plan.

In creating a business plan for your online business the first logical step that you need to take is your business plan should have complete information on the implementation of your business idea. It should clearly indicate the details of who will be your target audience. You must work out exactly who you’re going to market to. You can target as large or small audience as you like, it all depends on you.

Second is how will you reach your audience. In today’s trend social media is the most easiest and convenient way to reach your audience. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+ are the most popular social medium you can use. If you own a website, you can do article writing, blogging, SEO, pay-per click or solo ads. This is what you called Traffic. Once the traffic increases to the website developed and designed, we could make the customers buy the product or service marketed by the website. Online Business is different from the conventional business only in the case of Business Platform, or otherwise all the principles for successful business like customer relationship management, customer delight, value for money, quality, and good after sales service support etc. are important in online business venture. But it is for sure that Internet is not the market place, where one can make quick money and the success of online business venture will greatly depend on the patience and ability to understand and capitalize on the large opportunity available in the ever-changing internet environment.

Finally, your business plan should also have your Budget or financials; even though you are running an online business it is also important to include your budget. You don’t need a fancy spreadsheet or pro forma financials but you do need to know how much money and for how long you will need to support your online business until it supports itself and you.

Unlike the conventional business, the business idea is the important aspect of online business and it acts as the focal point. All other aspects and processes of online business revolve around this idea. Once the business idea is generated, a strong Business Plan is to be prepared based on the business idea. The business idea can be anything like extending the conventional business to the online business mode, or to buy or sell any new product or service, or to become an advertising platform or to become a link in the distribution chain like a reseller etc. Every business starts with a strong business plan – it is the foundation and the building block of every company. A good business plan will not only be the blueprint of your business, it will also provide you with a good entry into many doors, including the door of investors and financial institutions. The due diligence of starting a company can be overwhelming.

As a freelancer, it is easy to get stuck in the rut and believe that you have to be the one who does everything. However, being the one who performs all the work limits the time you can actually spend building a successful business.

Do you want to be successful?

Then you have to understand how to build a business rather than just having a series of projects. To build a business you need systems.

Part of building systems is learning to:

Adopt the right mindset

If you want to grow a business, the very first step is to have the right mindset. If you maintain the mindset of a freelancer which is project based rather than system based, then building a business will be a foreign concept to you. To adopt the right mindset, you need to adopt the business mindset. There are many books published that tells you how to build a successful business using systems. The most important thing you will need to learn here is that building a successful business involves systems.

Plan

You need to have a plan about where you want to go. Do you just want to make few bucks or do you really want to build a successful lifestyle?

With a freelance business, if you stop working, you stop earning. Obviously, if this is as far as you want to go with your consulting projects, then this is fine. But from over ten years of consulting, I have learned most business owners want more. They want success and financial freedom and are always concerned about ways to achieve it.

Financial freedom is not a random act but needs to be planned. Determine where you want your successful business to be in three years. And develop steps to achieve that plan.

Delegate

If you are stuck in the routine of accepting, completing and then moving on the next project, there is good news for you. Delegation is a very effective way of assigning routine tasks while you focus on the tasks that only you can do to build your freelance business. In the beginning delegation seems to cost more money. But the key is to focus on the long term goal which is your success and financial independence. When you delegate, you always have something going on as you are already looking for the next client while your employee/ contractor is working on your current project.

You can also delegate your client acquisition system by using referrals to build your client base. Of course you will need to provide exceptional service for this to be successful.

Moreover, you can delegate your customer service/ follow-up process to an online administration service. You can even delegate your blogging to guest bloggers.

When you delegate the essential parts of your business system, you can take extended vacations and still bring in income. When you can walk away from your business from a period of time you are beginning to achieve success and financial freedom,

Delegation is a necessary pre-requisite to growth. You risks becoming irrelevant if you do not delegate. We all know technology changes and if you are too busy working on projects, you have less time to work on your skills and stay relevant in your field.

Automate:

Nowadays, there are so many technologies out there than can help automate parts of your successful business.

You can use auto responders to improve your customer service. Auto responders can be your first course of response to let your client know you received their request and will get to them within 24 hours.

Another useful automation tool is project management software called basecamp. We all know that sometimes the meaning of a word is sometimes lost in the translation when communicated through email.

With basecamp every aspect of your project is kept on one page: All correspondence, to do list, revision drafts, etc. are all kept in the same place. At any time, any team member or client can see what is going on with the project. I think this is cool as it is such a big time saver. It cuts down the amount of time you spend on emails by half.

Using basecamp increases business success with your client management system.

Build passive income:

In honesty, I hate this term passive income as there is a lot of confusion as to what passive income really is. Some people see passive income as a lazy way of building successful businesses on the internet. However, there is no lazy way out. What most people call passive income is really hours of upstart sweat equity which finally produces cash flow over an extended period of time? We do not see behind the curtains of most successful entrepreneurs hence we do not see all the hard work that went on behind the scenes. Most people want the results without the sacrifice.

With that said, using passive income sources like affiliate marketing, product sales or digital products, can boost your income by providing a consistent stream of income. This in turn contributes to your success and financial independence.

In this way your income is not tied strictly to your clients. This gives you more choice as to what type of clients you will like to work with.

Understand your numbers:

This is the topic no one likes to talk about. Most freelancers believe that as long as you are making enough money, the financial details are not relevant to your successful business. Think of your car, and think how long it will actually run if no maintenance was ever done. Your car will not run very long. A business is the same way; you need to perform regular checks to make sure all parts are still functioning efficiently.

Until you learn to look under the hood of your business, you cannot really succeed. It is when you begin to understand how the numbers work in your business that you begin to see patterns that can propel you to the next level. Understanding your financial statements and knowing how to use it to project into the future is paramount to business success.

Are you a freelancer, website designer or consultant? Do you want to build a successful business? Then take the time and read this information and respond to this post with one action you will take to move from being a freelancer to actually owning a successful business.